An incorrigible Cognitive Dissident

Trump has upset someone, everyone is wrong, Justice is a loner, and nobody’s going to be happy. It’s just a normal kind of Sunday, as the US and Britain continue to move in all the wrong circles

There was a bit of a kerfuffle at the Trump rally last night, when Secret Service operatives bundled the Donald off the stage. “He’s got a gun!” yelled somebody, apparently not referring to the candidate himself.

It turned out to be one balding bloke holding a ‘Republicans against Trump’ poster. He was later released. But the CIA is wise to be nervous: back in July, there was a genuine attempt to shoot the Republican ‘nominee’:

So if you’ve ever wondered what Remoaners get up to in their spare time, now you know.

As I write, Andrew Marr’s Sunday slot is on the telly. I can’t bear to watch the show any more, having long ago decided that it should be renamed Andy Pandy’s Yes No interlude, in which every guest has to try and avoid saying either word during the hour. Once a week there would be a Celebrity edition called Tezza Shoebucket’s Yes No interlude, in which the Prime Minister has to do the same thing. Dumbing down is great for the ratings, and let’s face it BBC Parliament needs some….we think – but don’t know – because it’s a State secret.

And now, here is the BBC weather forecast, read for us today by Gail Fourse:

“Today we can see a ridge of high pressure hanging over Westminster, a sad side effect of Brexit, also directly responsible for the enormous low pressure sitting firmly upon Britain’s economy, which we expect to melt in the rising temperatures created by a lot of bad feeling created by a pointless referendum when everyone knew before we started that it had no relevance, except to the weather”.

Yes, over the last 72 hours the arguments have pulled this way and that, depending on whether you think the Judges or the Daily Mail are Enemies of the People.

However, the situation is now so unutterably daft, both sides are all completely wrong.

There is much talk by Brexiteers of the Sovereignty of the People. Much as I would prefer that to be the case for everyone sane and not in prison, the Sovereignty of Parliament has been accepted as a Constitutional Right for well over 200 years. Indeed, there are some who would argue that – the real power of legislators outside the Cabinet being so diluted since Bagehot’s time – there is now a usage case for Sovereignty lying with Privy Councillors.

Equally, there is much talk among the Remaindeers of the Sovereignty of Parliament, but also the independence of the Judiciary. Anyone who thinks we still have an independent judiciary in Britain is either a rabid Tory, a Judge, very silly, asleep, or all four. In fact, probably down on all fours as well. But when it suits the Left to champion the Judges, then of course they will – and are doing.

However, they are right in saying the Sovereign power in the land is Parliament. And that sovereign body voted 6-1 in favour of a motion calling upon the People’s decision to be final and carried out by the Executive of the Day. Sorry about this Remainians, but that sort of looks like checkmate.

Except it isn’t, for the following reasons:

The Remain case is valid in saying Parliament must have a say in the terms of leaving the EU, because the pre-Referendum promise just said “will to Leave or Stay” – but nothing about the argey-bargey involved. Further

Is it any longer right to give Sovereignty to a bunch of lightweight twisters and liars? And finally

Why do we GAF about the views of blokes who award damages to trees and find
Andy Coulson not guilty of perjury?

So this is the situation ‘going forward’ as people are wont to say – even if we are going round in circles:

Parliament has the right to debate the terms and vote to change them so long as, at the end of the process, Britain is not subject to any laws dictated by Brussels, and is no longer a member of the European Union.

Which of course is perfectly correct, but will please nobody because:

The vast majority (78% at the last count) do not want any further immigration into the UK; and

The other side do not want to break any ties with the EU.

So in a nutshell, everyone is wrong and nobody will be happy. That has a ring of normality about it.

Today I’m having slow roast beef on a bed of winter vegetables smothered in garlic. So it’s a traditional British dish with Mediterranean overtones, and I’m eating it in France. That’s the kind of Europe I want. Not one serving up a Belgian Fricassée of claptrap with Fritz & sausage.

Its my understanding that the 2015 Referendum bill was of an advisory nature and was bot legally binding. The Wikipedia entry says

“The act made no provision for the result to be legally binding on the government or on any future government.[9] The result of the referendum was to be a single majority vote of the United Kingdom and Gibraltar with no super majorities, double majorities of the constituent countries or any minimum turnout threshold required for the vote to pass. The act did not specify any specific consequences that would follow the result of the referendum. In the event of a “Leave” vote, the government would decide whether, when, and under what circumstances, the UK would invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to begin a two-year process of negotiations for Britain to leave the EU.[10] European Union law would remain enforceable in the United Kingdom until or unless the European Communities Act 1972 were repealed.[7]”

I accept that it the Government cannot reject the result but it does seem to me that there is now a role for parliament to become involved in steering the process of leaving, albeit in a way consistent with the “Will of the People”. The alternative appears to be to leave the whole process in the hands of a small number of people who have interpreted the results of the referendum as a complete mandate to do as they will.

The fundamental problem was I see it is that the referendum did not have the appropriate checks and balances in it to avoid this mess. The question was simplistic; there were no thresholds as to turnout or results and virtually no discussions of the realities of both staying or leaving.

I now live in France and, in the UK lived in a very heavily immigrant neighbourhood. I am aware of the issues and problems of both the EU and immigration. However I do believe that many of the issues both within the EU and domestically could have been resolved if we did not have such a cadre of cowardly, vacillating politicians.

@KJH Well put. I hope you don’t mind but I have saved your paragraph to give to the many younger members of my family (not all by any means) who voted remain. It will probably do little good as the teaching of history (esp our own history) has been so dumbed down that I have even been asked if Cromwell came before the Tudors or after and much more. They are told about how beastly the Europeans were to the noble Native Americans, the sins of the US in the Vietnam war and also all about the Nazis and WW2 without any notion of the causes and lead up to that conflagration.

@Ian McDowell. I see the head of the British Armed Forces has said that Trump is a better bet for world peace than Killary.

John
I will try again:
I note that the hill billy circus is resorting to star gazing and using earthly versions to perform special simulations of dogs with rabies!
It is my opinion , it is quite good thinking.
The laser fests now taking place on most channels would appear to be getting bums on the seats and viewing figures up.
But yesterday the female hill billy nearly lost it. Shameful … that she at her age would be encouraged to copy the antics of professionals.
These antics in the past needed great quantities of cola to achieve the manic movements. which brought about the jita-bug dance craze some years back.

@ KJH Spot on, bravo! Our elected-non-representatives might wake up to a life less travelled…. the People may have other ideas! Judges are mere establishment gatekeepers, though some in that murky field may be patriotic! Justice is what you can afford. Try it and see?

If Brexit doesnt happen, look on the bright side, you wont need to bother the ballot box ever again. It will be rendered obsolete, the days of voting an object of history. On to the next chapter, neck wringing.

John, Brexit is a sideshow compared with the Trump Threat. This is a man who thinks that if you lie often enough, and big enough, and don’t care if that makes you look stupid, then you will win power in the end. He’s been lying his way to power for thirty years. It was a technique invented by a clever, sad little chap who murdered his own children with cyanide. It led to the deaths of 60 million people. Less than a lifespan ago. Enjoy your roast beef, as I enjoy mine. For now.

When Prime Minister Edward Heath signed the Treaty of Rome for us to join the common market, now the EU, the Lord Chancellor Lord Kilmuir wrote that giving away our sovereignty to another state would be illegal stating that Parliament may do many things but what it may not do is surrender any of its rights to govern unless we have been defeated in war. “This is a surrender of our Sovereignty a clear Act of Treason under the 1351 Treason Act and a Praemunire, under the 1392 Act of Praemunire, it is Treason under the 1559 Act of Supremacy and the 1688/9 Declaration and Bill of Rights.”
The letter was kept secret under the thirty year rule.
Heath misled parliament by stating that there was no loss of sovereignty, later admitted in his memoirs.
As Heath signed the treaty, knowing it involved a loss of sovereignty, it is illegal and the treaty should be null and void.